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Cast iron road bridge over Storth Lane


Calvin72

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Whilst looking at other things in the area on Street View I saw that a road bridge over Storth Lane in Ranmoor was listed. I went and had a look and it's certainly unusual for a Sheffield road bridge! I wonder which road was in place first and why such an ornate structure?

 

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From Peter Warr's "The Growth of Ranmoor, Hangingwater and Nether Green" :

The Stumperlowe Crescent Land Society

An area on the west side of the lower section of Water Lane (renamed as Storth Lane in 1886) was made accessible from Graham Road by the construction in 1875 by W.E.Laycock, of Stumperlowe Crescent Road and a bridge (now a listed building) over Water Lane.

Although 22 plots were established and sold, these gradually became combined into larger groups (as happened on other estates) and building was again slow; no houses were erected until 1905.

(William Edward Laycock J.P. of Stumperlowe Grange died aged 80 on 21st November 1895 at Scarborough and left £11,620. He had been the chairman of Samuel Laycock and Sons Ltd, Portobello Place, hair seating manufacturers. In 1865 he was mayor.  He bought the Stumperlowe Grange Estate and lived there from 1855)

Laycock.png.2115f12d11f215ed0056f20dca3b2f06.png

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See the official listing.  From the looks of the decorations above, and the width of the road I was going to suggest that Storth Lane came first, but Edmund has got in ahead of me with that detail!.

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If Storth lane could have been profiled to be a bit higher by using material from profiling stumperlowe Cres to be a bit lower then there would have been a crossroads. It strikes me as odd to build a bridge, especially such an ornate one, but perhaps it hihglights the effort and cost of earthmoving to landscape such a junction. 

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I pass under this bridge quite regularly and often wondered the same question, - there is very little traffic either over or under and it looks like a railway bridge.

Given that it was built before motor vehicles it must have been to facilitate horse and carriage transport to the posh new housing estate?

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Is there a problem with synchronisation here?  Nothing has come through overnight on RSS (shcp99 and rover1949) and yesterday Clavin72's post didn't show when I was replying.

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Possibly the bridge solution was needed because of the proximity of Snaithing Brook (see 1850 map below).  When this map was drawn the brook appears to run along the lower part of Water Lane (Storth Lane).  The 1890 map doesn't show the brook, which has by then presumably been culverted under the bridge.

1805171073_SnaithingBrook1850.png.145fb21a23c34a651bf44d9240df269b.png

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On 10/07/2020 at 10:14, rover1949 said:

 

Given that it was built before motor vehicles it must have been to facilitate horse and carriage transport to the posh new housing estate?

I think this is my favorite explanation. There was no essential need for a bridge but building one would have certainly made for a grand entrance and indeed elevated perspective to the newly demarcated estate plots.

As Edmund points out above the bridge doesnt go over the river but I acknowledge that that it could have added a challenge to cross although Sheffield was well in to culverting season by this point.

So on that basis of what Rover says I would see the bridge as a means by which the new residents of this area could literally elevate themselves above the other existing residents by making such conspicuous and no doubt grandiose entrances and exits to the estate. It must have added to the desirability of the place.

 

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